Purported iPhone 5 logic board shows LTE modem, A6 CPU

The flurry of last-minute leaks continues, as a new picture claims to show the logic board from Apple's iPhone 5, complete with a 4G LTE modem chip and a new A6 processor. Separately, a series of pictures appear to show the final design of the iPhone 5.

The picture, published on Wednesday by HDblog.it only hours before Apple's keynote presentation, shows space for a chip labeled "A6." That suggests the chip is a major improvement from the A5 processor currently found in the iPhone 4S, as well as the upgraded A5X processor that powers the third-generation iPad with Retina display.

Separately, images that appear to show the final design of the iPhone 5 were republished on Wednesday by nowhereelse.fr.

Various reports have claimed that the A6 will be a quad-core chip. It has been suggested that the ARM processor will be based on Samsung's Exynox 4 architecture.

The A5 chip in the iPhone 4S is a dual-core processor clocked at 800 megahertz. In the iPad 2, the A5 runs slightly faster at 1 gigahertz, thanks to a larger form factor with a bigger battery.'

The logic board shown in the picture also appears to include a Qualcomm 4G LTE modem for high-speed data connectivity. LTE support in the new iPhone has been widely expected since the third-generation iPad debuted with 4G LTE connectivity earlier this year.

The part shows a Qualcomm MDM9615M chip, which is an LTE modem and an improved version of the chip used in the third-generation iPad. The MDM9615M silicon was rumored in August to appear in the next iPhone.

Because the MDM chip's die size is smaller than previous iterations, production yield of the modem is said to be higher and is not expected to cause issues with mass production of the iPhone 5, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst with KGI Securities.

Further evidence of 4G LTE support for the iPhone 5 was discovered on Apple's website earlier Monday. Conducting a search for "iphone-lte" returned a link to an inactive page that suggested the new iPhone will have 4G LTE connectivity.

So it turns out that it's increasingly likely Apple will introduce a new CPU, and the new CPU wil be the main shocker in the hardware department, just like I've predicted. I've read endless threads of people speculating how Apple couldn't possibly have the A6 ready for the new iPhone and how they would have to resort to a souped-up version of the same CPU in the 4S, showing how they were 'falling behind' with the specs. It all makes so much sense, the A5 is decidely 'previous generation' hardware, the A5X makes no sense whatsoever in a phone because it's basically a marginally faster A5 CPU with double the GPU performance, but the GPU in the 4S was already overspecced for the screen resolution.

I for one am loving what I'm seeing. The same timeless design as the 4/4S, somewhat bigger screen without increasing the case size a lot, unibody construction with materials less prone to wear, tear and abuse, and top-notch internals based on current state of the art in production-ready mobile hardware. Hopefully they will also bump the baseline capacity and offer 32, 64 and 128 GB versions (this is the single one of the predictions I made a few months ago that's still up in the air).

Is it me or does it look like a flat black powdered coating around the antenna band now?

It must be steel because to me it looks to be parkerized (maybe bluing but hopefully parkerized because it is more effective than bluing) and only ferrous metals can be parkerized (or blued) which aluminum is non-ferrous. Hopefully I'm right and it is either one of these methods of protection and not powder coated because that would just wear off and chip way too easily and would be a cheap alternative.

So it turns out that it's increasingly likely Apple will introduce a new CPU, and the new CPU wil be the main shocker in the hardware department, just like I've predicted. I've read endless threads of people speculating how Apple couldn't possibly have the A6 ready for the new iPhone and how they would have to resort to a souped-up version of the same CPU in the 4S, showing how they were 'falling behind' with the specs. It all makes so much sense, the A5 is decidely 'previous generation' hardware, the A5X makes no sense whatsoever in a phone because it's basically a marginally faster A5 CPU with double the GPU performance, but the GPU in the 4S was already overspecced for the screen resolution.

I for one am loving what I'm seeing. The same timeless design as the 4/4S, somewhat bigger screen without increasing the case size a lot, unibody construction with materials less prone to wear, tear and abuse, and top-notch internals based on current state of the art in production-ready mobile hardware. Hopefully they will also bump the baseline capacity and offer 32, 64 and 128 GB versions (this is the single one of the predictions I made a few months ago that's still up in the air).

Bring it on! :)

128 GB would be nice... I wonder what the A6 CPU foretells for the iPad and iPad Mini.